With only 20 minutes for lunch, foreign talent, Ong Boh Nao had some tim Sum at a food court. It turned out to be a bad experience. The har gao prawns were mushy and the siew mai had a stale, unpleasant smell. After running out of expletives, Boh Nao swore that he would never eat at a food court or coffeeshop again.
That weekend, he visited Cut Throat Restaurant for a dim sum feast. It was really good stuff. The Hongkong chefs created gorgeous works of art on the plates. He also had some lobster char kway teow, chye tau kway with XO sauce and kaya toast with gold dust sprinkled on it. He couldn’t quite taste the gold dust, but the pure extravagance charmed his taste buds so much that he was willing to pay $200 for a meal. Mr Ong was still licking his fingers when he was walking to the carpark.
Unfortunately for Mr Ong, the economy took a downturn and his company was on the verge of closing down. Mr Ong took a massive paycut. He had to sell his BMW, buy a Honda and move into an rented HDB apartment. He could still afford a meal at Cut Throat restaurant once a month, but most of the time, he would have to eat the lousy tim sum at the hawker centres.
One day, he met his former subordinate at the hawker centre.
“So surprised to see you here, Mr Ong.” his former subordinate remarked.
“What to do? Times are bad. I really miss the tim sum at Cut Throat Restaurant, but have to settle for this trash at the hawker centre.”
“But … Mr Ong,” said the former subordinate. “We don’t normally order tim sum at hawker centres. We know that it sucks.”
“So what do you eat at hawker centres?” asked Ong Boh Nao, puzzled.
“Fishball noodles, char kway teow, Hokkien mee and chye tau kway.” replied the ex-subordinate. “Tim sum is restaurant food. We order it when we visit the restaurant. By the same token, we wouldn’t order char kway teow in a restaurant. It would be overpriced and probably not even as good as that at the hawker centre! Here. Try some chye tau kway that I’ve ordered. Nothing much in there. Not even XO sauce, but it tastes great.”
“You’re right!” exclaimed Mr Ong after he has tried his chye tau kway without XO sauce. “Hawker food is supposed to be simple but tasty. Adding gold dust and XO sauce creates arbitrary value to cheat suckers like me. Come to think of it, you don’t need lobster in your char kway teow. In fact, it tastes even better with hum.”
